August 19, 2013

Grupo Chonta
Barbes
9:30pm, $10
Colombia boasts one of the world’s deeper marimba traditions in the currulao music of its southern Pacific coast. Hailing from Guapi, Diego Obregón rocks the Afro-Colombian marimba (a descendent of the West African balafon), which is usually accompanied by three (or more) percussionists playing the cununo drum and guasa shakers, though he was fronting a jazz group at a recent gig here. Either way, it’s polyrhythmic trance music with liberationist tendencies. — By Richard Gehr

Tuesday, 8/20:

The Underachievers + CJ Fly + Dillon Cooper + Danse Daimons
Santos Party House
7:30pm, $15
The handle this New York rap duo go by is the ultimate oxymoron: Hyper-animated and high on youth, AK and Dash pack more verve and color into their individual mixtape cuts than most mainstream MCs put into event-rap albums. There’s no better source right now for wild-eyed, yo-yo flows studded with rhymes about third eyes and laconic put-downs. It gets so intense that, honestly, these two might do well to tone it down a bit on their Indigoism follow-up. — By Raymond Cummings

Julianna Barwick
Judson Memorial Church
7pm, $20
Tripling and quadrupling her voice with the help of a Roland RC-50 Loop Station, singer Julianna Barwick creates her most otherworldly wordless choruses yet on Nepenthe, recorded in Reykjavik with Sigur Rós producer Alex Somers. Barwick, who grew up singing in Missouri and Oklahoma churches, brings home those imposing Icelandic chillscapes to the Stanford White-designed Judson Memorial Church, where the antidepressant qualities of the Brooklynite’s vocal ambience will work their forgetful magic–probably minus the string ensemble, guitarist, and teenage female choir that pop up on Nepenthe. Barwick released perfectly titled Sanguine in 2007 and its Asthmatic Kitty follow-up, The Magic Place, in 2011. Nepenthe, though, is a billowing musical benzodiazepine of a much higher dosage. — By Richard Gehr

Warning: NYC will be full of Parrotheads this week.

Wednesday, 8/21:

Gabriel Rios with special guests Aly Tadros and Gina Chavez
Joe’s Pub
9pm, $15
In a special night at Joe’s Pub, a collection of singer-songwriters will be international flavor to their particularly unique brands of dreamy acoustic music. Gabriel Rios, from Puerto Rico but now based in Brooklyn, will be joined by Aly Tadros and Gina Chavez who carry equally diverse influences and layers to their sound. While Tadros was raised in Texas, she traveled extensively and it shows in her sound. Chavez has been one to watch in the Latin music scene while also finding time to do mission work in El Salvador. Together, the trio are sure to host a show you won’t soon forget. — By Brittany Spanos

Thursday, 8/22:

Jimmy Buffett
Nikon Jones Beach Theater
Tuesday & Thursday, 8pm, $56-$156
Margaritaville won’t be too far away when Jimmy Buffett comes to the area complete with his pretty hefty collection of brand-friendly hits that have birthed restaurant chains and quickly whipped out phrase “it’s five o’ clock somewhere.” Appropriately at a venue on a beach, Buffett is bringing along the Coral Reefers band for a sunny, island-friendly adventure. Let’s hope he’ll be able to find that lost shaker of salt. — By Brittany Spanos

‘The World Trade Center was conceived by vested interests, promoted by pressure groups, brought into being by a handful of powerful men for reasons of monetary gain or personal pressure, and indirectly subsidized by the taxpayer’